Self Defeating Behaviours

“Describe and evaluate two approaches to the treatment of self-defeating behaviour. The approaches should be selected from those introduced in module 5”.
“Why did I say that?” “I can’t believe I ate all that!” “What was I thinking?” We have all asked ourselves these questions at one time or another. Every one of us has said or done something that we later regret, even though we know better. And we’re likely to do it over and over again. (Wallin. 2001).
As human beings we sometimes lose our temper, give in to temptation and say things that we later regret. We then try to give ourselves a reason for our actions such as; we were provoked to get angry or we had not eaten much that day so it was okay to have a piece of cake. These are excuses that we use to make it easier on ourselves and life more comfortable in these situations. We function in the world taking control of many areas of our lives like paying bills and going to work and looking after our children; but for many of us, we cannot seem to control ourselves. We adopt certain behaviours to help us cope in the world these could range from small habits, such as at home or at work, to big life decisions. It would be impossible to mention all of them, but a few of the more common ones are: blaming others rather than acknowledging responsibility for errors, procrastination, always having to be right and not listening, bad habits like smoking, drinking and eating. These behaviours can become harmful and destructive and because our mind is a powerful force to be reckoned with, they can lead to harmful effects on our physical well-being. Such behaviours are known as Self-Defeating Behaviours.
Self-defeating behaviour is the idea that sometimes people knowingly do things that will cause them to fail or bring them trouble. (Psychwiki.com, 2010). It is defined as “any deliberate or intentional behaviour that has clear, definitely or probably negative effects on the self or on the self’s...